Date: 23 September 1903
Pages: 281-282

34.
V. I. LENIN.
TO THE PROTOCOL COMMISSION. *)
[4 October 1903. Geneva.]

Comrades! In response to your inquiry1) as to whether we agree to publish our names in the protocols of the II Congress, we hereby inform you that on our part we have absolutely no objections to this, but we do not take it upon ourselves to decide to what extent this is permissible from conspiratorial considerations in the interests of our comrades in Russia. The decision of this question concerning conspiratorial security depends upon the appropriate party authority.

Geneva, 4 October 
1903.

M The inquiry of which Vladimir Ilyich speaks here was formulated twice by B. A. Koltsov in his letters cited above: of the 15th and of the 23rd of September.
*) The entire text of the statement in the manuscript was written in the hand of V. I. Lenin. The statement is signed in his own hand and by Plekhanov: "N. Lenin, G. Plekhanov". [Ed.]

Below we publish three letters from L. E. Galperin ("Konysh," "Konyagina") to the Iskra group in Berlin concerning the party split. These letters are of considerable interest for illuminating the first stage of the split (through the first days of October inclusive). The assessment of the situation which L. E. Galperin gave in these letters deserves attention all the more because 1) it proceeded from an Iskra supporter who long before the Congress had taken the most active part in the practical work of the Russian organization of Iskra (see above document 5 and the notes to it, pp. 68 and 75-76, note 9), 2) this assessment represented the fruit of fresh, immediate impression of an unbiased observer who himself did not personally participate in the Congress "fight," 3) the author of the letters played a significant role in subsequent stages of the development of the party split.

Before the Second Congress of the Party and throughout September following the Congress, he worked as part of the Berlin group of Iskra supporters, did not attend the Congress, and in the first period after the Congress (while in Berlin), not being sufficiently informed about the nature of the disagreements, he occupied a neutral position. V. A. Noskov, immediately upon the conclusion of the Congress, passing through Berlin (on his way to Russia), wrote from there on 28 August to V. I. Lenin and N. K. Krupskaya the following about Galperin: "Met with the comrades. The events naturally made a far from rosy impression. Konyaga is going to see you to make sense of what happened, but I have no doubt that he will stay with us." (Materials from the Archive of the Lenin Institute, document Zh/277.) L. E. Galperin, however, arrived in Geneva only a month after this letter from V. A. Noskov. N. K. Krupskaya in a letter to the C. C. in Russia of 26 September wrote about his arrival: "Konyaga has arrived, but has not yet been to see us, he is talking with the 'Marchers.' [Ed.]" (Materials from the Archive of the Lenin Institute, document Zh 4290.) Apparently, immediately after the first meetings with both sides, L. E. Galperin wrote his first letter to Berlin, which he mentions in the letter published here of 2 October and which was not found in the materials of the Lenin Institute.

Having familiarized himself on the spot with the positions of the majority and minority of the party Congress and with the actual state of affairs in the further development of the internal party disagreements, L. E. Galperin joined the majority and immediately took an active role in the struggle of the foreign group of the majority against the opposition. From the very beginning he expressed his readiness to go to practical work in Russia as an agent of the C. C. F. V. Lengnik in a letter...